![]() ![]() It allows us access to different thoughts and different ways of communicating,” she says.īut there are others who are more intent on holding the fort. “’Bilingual’ does not just mean the language, but the mindset. The Theatre Practice’s artistic director Kuo Jian Hong says this “two-brains” approach not only reflects Singapore’s bilingual or multilingual reality, but also gives playwrights and actors more tools to use. Yagnya – used not just Tamil, but also English and Japanese to reflect the reality of a Tamil Singaporean Japanophile.ĭrama Box’s When Cloud Catches Colours also mixed English with Mandarin and Chinese dialects in a verbatim play that captured the speech patterns of two middle-aged queer Singaporeans. – co-produced by The Esplanade and playwright A. What is new, however, is that mother-tongue theatre companies have become much more open to bilingual or even multilingual productions.Ī recent Tamil-language play, Between 5 Cows And The Deep Blue Sea. It has long been practised by companies like The Theatre Practice, which was founded in 1986. This attracted more than 500 people over four shows, surpassing his expectations.īilingual theatre in Singapore is not new. His recent Solo/Oray Aal comprised three 15-minute monologues in English and three in Tamil performed successively over 1½ hours. In some cases, he has opted for a bilingual approach. “Teachers would force students to come, but who else? Is there a point if people are struggling to keep up even with the English subtitles? You can’t run away from ‘Tamglish’,” he adds, referring to a spoken mix of English and Tamil. “Who exactly is going to watch this?” he asks. Suffice to say, he has since been convinced otherwise. It had been an ambition of Mr Saleem’s to put on a fully Tamil version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. But he adds that plays conducted completely in Tamil often end with audiences wondering which world they are living in. Mr Saleem Hadi, director of theatre social enterprise Singapore Indian Theatre & Film Explorers, says some stakeholders have expressed the desire to maintain a purist view of mother-tongue theatre. Where does it leave them if they compromise on this? There is a general sense that few Singaporeans still speak completely in their mother tongue, and that putting on plays in languages that are no longer widely spoken might be alienating to viewers.īut the raison d’etre for mother-tongue theatre companies is, in large part, their language. Updating the languageīut the smoke and mirrors of social media must be backed by substance, and here is where mother-tongue theatre companies have diverged. ![]() They are not on Facebook or Instagram,” he says, adding that the company wants to reach out to this large group. “The proportion of new Chinese immigrants make up about 10 per cent of our audience, based on our observations, growing mostly through word of mouth. It recently created the new role of business development executive in charge of supporting the company’s online and offline visibility.Īctor-director Chia says Nine Years Theatre is also looking into Chinese social media like WeChat and Weibo to reach new Chinese immigrants. Teater Ekamatra’s Shaza says her company markets plays in English to reach as many people as possible. “This can only lend weight to the Tamil theatre scene, and entice and appeal to the newer generation who are plugged in to the digital world.” “The Tamil theatre scene is predominantly made up of non-theatre professionals who are practitioners of the art form, and this has allowed these professionals from other fields to bring in their strengths and skills into various aspects of theatre-making. Its website is one of the standouts in the business, with curated videos, sleek graphics and easy-to-navigate tabs on a cool black background.Ī spokesman says that every member of Agam Theatre Lab is under 35 years old and many of them have corporate experience in fields such as public relations. They have adapted the language of their plays, and involved themselves in nurturing a new generation of actors and audiences.Īt the forefront of the social media drive for mother-tongue theatre is Agam Theatre Lab. In recent years, mother-tongue theatre companies have paid more attention to increasing their social media presence. Increases in their audience numbers have been hard won. But mother-tongue practitioners are hoping that they have successfully arrested the downturn and even begun a slow reversal. That heyday is now firmly over, and smaller black-box venues are more likely. It means ‘many’, and audiences enjoy seeing us negotiating with others on the scene in a very colourful way.”īefore the turn of the century, it was common for mother-tongue theatre companies to put on huge shows in grand venues like the Victoria Theatre. “When we talk about multiculturalism, we have to look at the prefix ‘multi’ first. ![]()
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